THE SPITZ TAKE: Signs of lives, symbols of sacrifice

Sunday

May 26, 2013 at 12:01 AMMay 26, 2013 at 3:20 AM

The good news is the 91 signs are hundreds fewer than in past years, when the tributes stretched into Ashland and Milford, Sherborn and Medway. The bad news is there are 91 signs, each representing a life lost since Veterans Day.

Julia Spitz/Daily News staff

The good news is the 91 signs are hundreds fewer than in past years, when the tributes stretched into Ashland and Milford, Sherborn and Medway.

The bad news is there are 91 signs, each representing a life lost since Veterans Day.

The good news is the commitment of "Mayor of Mudville'' Bobby Blair and a core group of volunteers in Holliston hasn't wavered in 11 years.

The bad news is it's been 11 years and, in that time, thousands of Americans' and allies' lives have been memorialized by the signs and flags that appear twice a year along Holliston's main routes.

Once again, each fallen soldier's life is remembered with the name, rank, age and home state or home country, written by Blair in black capital letters, and accompanied by a flag, then attached to utility poles.

Once again, each sign offers clues to the stories of those who paid the ultimate price in service to their country.

And once again, the stories of strength, honor and sacrifice are ones to remember as we observe Memorial Day.

Air Force Capt. Victoria Pinckney, 27, mother of a 7-month-old son and granddaughter of a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, was killed May 3 in a refueling-plane crash in Kyrgyzstan while on a mission to support troops in Afghanistan.

Pinckney, who grew up in California, met her husband while they were both at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and when one was deployed, the other stayed behind to care for the baby, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

While her dream since childhood had been to serve in the Air Force, she also earned a master's degree in psychology and, while stationed in Washington, was an active volunteer with a nonprofit group that feeds several hundred homeless people each Sunday in Spokane.

The sign honoring Pinckney is near the Holliston Historical Society on Washington Street.

Across the street, close to the police station, is the sign for Air Force Capt. Reid Nishizuka, 30, of Hawaii, who was killed in the crash of an MC-12 aircraft April 27 near Kandahar Air Force Base.

Nishizuka attended Notre Dame University after graduating from high school in Hawaii, the Rafu Shimpo Los Angeles Japanese Daily News reported. He studied aeronautical engineering at Notre Dame and had served multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lt. Robert Hess, 26, of Fairfax, Va., like his father, chose the Army as his branch of service. "He was a natural leader and a great officer,'' his family told the Washington Post after his death April 23, the result of enemy fire in Pul-E-Alam, Afghanistan. His childhood was spent in Hawaii, Alabama and Germany, while his father served as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot, but he attended Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax as a teen and went on to Old Dominion University before "living his dream'' as a helicopter pilot like his dad.

Hess' sign, near Holliston Town Hall, is just a few steps west of tributes to Army Staff Sgt. Rex Schad, 26, of Oklahoma, and Sgt. Enrique Mondragon, 23, of Texas.

Schad, killed March 11 when an Afghan police officer fired on a group of fellow officers and U.S. soldiers, was "an absolute rock star in his chosen profession,'' his platoon leader told mourners in Edmond, Okla., the NewsOK website reported. "He was the best squad leader in the division.'' Also at Schad's funeral, his fiancee "read some of the vows she never got to say to Schad. They planned on marrying after he returned'' from Afghanistan, NewsOK reported.

Mondragon, a military police officer, was killed on Christmas Eve while on patrol in Baraki Barak, Afghanistan. In his short life, "anything we said we might do, he would make it happen,'' including buying a house, his wife, Katie, told the Dallas Morning News. Mondragon and his wife met as teens working at J.C. Penney. He later studied computer-aided design, but "he just wanted the best for my daughter and me,'' his wife told the Dallas paper. The baby-faced soldier had hoped military service would lead to a career in a related field.

A helicopter crash near Kandahar, Afghanistan, on March 11 is responsible for five of the signs volunteers put up last weekend, including the one memorializing Army Capt. Sara Knutson, 27, of Maryland.

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, she became a Black Hawk helicopter pilot and married fellow pilot Chris Cullen in November, the Carroll County Times reported. The newlyweds had met while stationed at Fort Wainwright in Alaska.

Next to Knutson's sign is a tribute to PFC Brandon Buttry, 19, of Iowa, who had long dreamed of joining the Army, his family told the Omaha World-Herald.

Buttry grew up as one of 14 children, both biological and adopted, of Don and Pam Buttry. He was deeply religious and helped lead a children's worship group at his Baptist church in Shenandoah, Iowa, as well as volunteer for a program for disabled adults.

He was scheduled to return home on leave for Thanksgiving with his family, but died while on guard duty atop a watchtower in southern Afghanistan on Nov. 5.

Other signs along Washington Street pay tribute to Army Sgt. Aaron Wittman, 28, of Virginia, a graduate of The Citadel and the first casualty reported in 2013; and SPC Zachary Shanafelt, 24, a combat medic from Michigan who was injured in Afghanistan in 2011, and died from his injuries at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington on Nov. 21.

They honor Sgt. Channing Hicks, 24, of South Carolina, who was wounded during his first tour in Iraq, and "re-upped while he was recovering from his injury,'' his father told GreerToday.com; and Sgt. Matthew Stiltz, 26, of Washington, also a veteran of two deployments to Iraq before being sent to Afghanistan.

They honor all who have paid the ultimate price.

They remind us of family and friends left behind, and the many lives each soldier touches along the way.

And they remind us why, on Memorial Day, it's not too much to ask of us to remember what is symbolized by the signs.

Julia Spitz can be reached at 508-626-3968 or jspitz@wickedlocal.com. You can also read the Spitz Bits blog at www.metrowestdailynews.com/blogs/spitzbits and follow tweets at twitter.com/SpitzJ_MW.

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